INITIATIVE MEDIA WEEK IN REVIEW: JULY 6 – 12
TELEVISION
Top 5 Prime Time Programmes – People 18-39
1. Sunday 2145-2300 Dexter NEW-10 13.3
2. Tuesday 2030-2130 Two and Half Men STW-9 12.6
3. Thursday 2000-2030 My Name Is Earl TVW-7 12.4
4. Wednesday 1930-2140 Big Brother – Pamela Anderson enters NEW-10 12.4
5. Thursday 1930-2000 How I Met Your Mother TVW-7 11.9
Top 5 Prime Time Programmes People 25-39
1. Thursday 2000-2030 My Name Is Earl TVW-7 14.0
2. Thursday 1930-2000 How I Met Your Mother TVW-7 13.9
3. Sunday 1930-2030 60 Minutes STW-9 13.6
4. Wednesday 1930-2140 Big Brother – Pamela Anderson enters NEW-10 13.6
5. Tuesday 2030-2130 Two and A Half Men STW-9 13.2
Top 5 Prime Time Programmes People 25-54
1. Sunday 1930-2030 60 Minutes STW-9 15.1
2. Sunday 2030-2130 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation STW-9 14.7
3. Sunday 1800-1830 News TVW-7 12.9
4. Sunday 2140-0200 Wimbledon Men’s Final STW-9 12.8
5. Monday 1800-1830 News TVW-7 12.7
Top 5 Prime Time Programmes People 35-54
1. Sunday 1930-2030 60 Minutes STW-9 15.8
2. Sunday 1800-1830 News TVW-7 14.7
3. Sunday 2030-2130 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation STW-9 14.6
4. Sunday 2140-0200 Wimbledon Men’s Final STW-9 14.1
5. Monday 1800-1830 News TVW-7 13.6
TVW-7 won the week overall (0600-2400) for Total People with a commercial share of 39.4%, followed by NEW-10 with 31.1% and STW-9 with 29.5%.
TVW-7’s top performing programmes for Total People included News, City Homicide, Today Tonight, Border Security – Australia’s Front Line, Better Homes and Gardens and RSPCA Animal Rescue. Seven’s new programme The One – Australia’s Most Gifted Psychic had a strong launch averaging 1,468 million viewers nationally and 199,000 viewers locally. Also this week saw the return series of Border Patrol NZ, RSPCA Animal Rescue and Prison Break. RSPCA Animal Rescue rated well making the top ten for Total People and reaching an average 204,000 viewers. Border Patrol NZ, Prison Break and the second episode of Lipstick Jungle failed to make the top fifty programmes for Total People. City Homicide audience increased by 15.8% week on week with People 25-54 and 10.5% with 35-54 year olds. How I Met Your Mother and My Name Is Earl made the top five programmes with People 18-39 and 25-39, with the latter taking the top position with People 25-39. The Grand final of Gladiators reached an average 168,000 viewers with Total People. The Vicar of Dibley had strong ratings with People 35-54 increasing viewer ship by 36.4%.
STW-9’s strong Sunday night lineup continues with 60 Minutes being the number one programme of the week for Total People reaching an average 242,000 viewers locally. It was also the top programme for the night reaching 1,945,751 viewers nationally, its highest result this year. Also in the top fifteen was CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Domestic Blitz. Tuesdays “adults only” Two and Half Men rated well with People 18-39 and 25-39 making it into the top five programmes. The Farmer Wants a Wife audience increased by 17.4% week on week with People 18-39, making the top twelve after not making the top thirty the previous week. After only one week Bad Lads Army was replaced with a “new” series Ladette To Lady, which failed to make it into the top fifty programmes for Total People. Nine introduced two new series this week, The F Word and The Celebrity Singing Bee. The F Word just managed to make the top twenty programmes for People 18-39 and 25-39, with The Celebrity Singing Bee taking sixth spot with People 35-54. The Wimbledon Men’s Final made the top five positions with People 25-54 and 35-54. The epic five set match between Federer and Nadal reached 154,000 viewers even though the telecast went through to 02.00am.
Unfortunately, no NEW-10 programmes made the top twenty for Total People. However, the new series Dexter took the top position with People 18-39, followed by Big Brother – Pamela Anderson enters the House, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Tuesdays Simpsons and Rove all making the top ten with this demo. Big Brother – Pamela Anderson enters the House also made the top ten programmes with People 25-39 and 25-54. The series final of Number’s unfortunately did not draw in the viewers, failing to make it into the top fifty with any of our demos.
Ten News at Five grabbed the top four positions in the day time segment for Total People with NEW-10’s Sunday afternoon Sports Tonight taking fifth position.
The Nine Network scored a resounding ratings win on Sunday 6th July. Nine had the top four rating shows of the night against Total People:
Metro 5 Capital City Programme Station Average Audience
Sunday 6th July 60 Minutes Nine 1,945,751
Domestic Blitz Nine  
; 1,577,868
Nine News Nine 1,564,556
CSI Nine 1,555,402
Seven News Seven 1,525,762
However on Monday night Seven Network won five of the top rating programmes:
Metro 5 Capital City Programme Station Average Audience
Monday 7th July City Homicide Seven 1,584,101
Seven News Seven 1,548,632
Border Security Seven 1,485,116
Today Tonight Seven 1,427,451
Surf Patrol Seven 1,405,433
Seven Network continued to win the top rating programme with their News from Tuesday to Thursday with Better Homes and Gardens on Friday night and News on Saturday night.
BIG BROTHER
Network Ten has announced that Big Brother will not be returning in 2009, after eight successful seasons and 1316 episodes. The 2008 season finale will air on Monday July 21st. This years Big Brother struggled to repeat the strong ratings of previous years. Grant Blackley, Ten’s chief executive officer, said “Big Brother has been an important franchise for the network but they are confident this is the right decision at the right time for Ten.
METRO TV SURVEY 5, 2008
This survey covered the period from June 15 to July 12, 2008.
The Zone 1 commercial share results for Total People were as follows:
Perth Adelaide Brisbane Sydney Melbourne
7 Network 40.8% 35.7% 36.4% 35.9% 36.3%
9 Network 32.0% 34.5% 39.0% 38.5% 35.7%
10 Network 27.2% 29.8% 24.6% 25.6% 28.0%
The overall (0600-2400) commercial share results for Total People were as follows:
Perth Adelaide Brisbane Sydney Melbourne
7 Network 40.9% 36.6% 37.4% 36.3% 36.2%
9 Network 28.9% 32.0% 36.2% 36.5% 34.4%
10 Network 30.2% 31.4% 26.4% 27.2% 29.4%
AUSTRALIA TO LEAD BROADBAND CHARGE
eMarketer, a marketing intelligence company predicts Australia will lead the world in broadband penetration by 2012. The report has indicated that 63% of Australian homes will have high-speed internet subscribers, by the end of 2008. ADSL is the most popular broadband technology in Australia and will be installed in almost four million households this year. The use of cable technology for broadband access comes in second, with 785,000 users expected for 2008. According to Nielsen Online figures from March, Australians are not heavy users of bandwidth-intensive online activity, which shows that email is still the popular online activity (98%), followed by banking (72%) and bill payment (66%).